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IBM's Prieto named to DOD cyber post

Daniel Pietro is now director of cybersecurity and technology at DOD's CIO office. (LinkedIn profile picture)

Daniel Prieto will join the Defense Department as a top cybersecurity official.

Prieto, who recently served as vice president of IBM's public sector global business services, was appointed to the Senior Executive Service and named director of cybersecurity and technology at DOD's CIO office in Washington. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced his appointment on Aug. 20.

The new director is no stranger to cybersecurity policy: He also has been a senior associate in the Center for Strategic and International Studies' homeland security and counterterrorism program since 2010. Prior to that, Prieto was research director at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government's Homeland Security Partnership Initiative. He also served as a professional staff member on the House's select committee on homeland security, according to his LinkedIn bio.

Prieto "has worked for two decades in the private sector, academia, and government at the intersection of technology, public policy, and national and homeland security issues," his CSIS bio states. Between 2002 and 2007, he has held various fellowship appointments at the Center for National Policy, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Kennedy School of Government, Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation and George Washington University.

Prieto also has held positions at America Online and J.P. Morgan., and is a member of the Aspen Homeland Security Group, co-founder and co-director of the American Bar Association's Cybersecurity Working Group, and a member of the Committee on Law and Justice of the National Academy of Sciences, according to the Center for National Policy.

Earlier this summer, Prieto wrote about the evolution of the intelligence community and its use of technology in a piece for Foreign Policy.